Social networks in the online world are typically based on relationships between people or affiliations such as groups, educational institutions, workplaces, etc. Some of the people may form relationships offline and establish an online relationship. An example may be a family member establishing an online relationship with another family member. Other people may form relationships online and then establish an offline relationship, such as an internet dating service. Still other relationships may be established online and remain online.
Social networks provide a rich area for content, where friends may post blog entries, share recipes or pictures, or various other data. When a user wishes to search within the social network, the search technologies can be cumbersome, computationally intensive, and may not return the desired results. Additionally, such searches may be limited to a specific social network and may not be accessible to generalized search engines.